The first results of the project are available in a report which investigates e-leadership metrics, higher education offers, and national policies and initiatives in this field. Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome and should be addressed to the authors directly.

The service contract ‘e-Leadership Skills for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (LEAD)# was launched by the European Commission. LEAD will develop targeted actions for start-ups and fast growing SMEs to provide them with relevant e-leadership skills and qualifications for entrepreneurs, managers and advanced ICT users that are recognized trans-nationally.

LEAD is contributing to the “Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs” and as a contribution to the follow up of the Commission’s Communication on “e-Skills for the 21st Century” which presents an EU long term e-skills agenda, of “The Digital Agenda for Europe” and of the Communication “Towards a Job-rich Recovery”.

The main focus of this service contract is on e-leadership in SMEs and start-up firms. e-Leadership has been defined as the accomplishment of a goal that relies on information and communication technologies (ICT) through the direction of human resources and uses of ICT. This type of leadership is thus distinguished by the type of goal that needs to be accomplished and the type of resources a leader must coordinate and align: both the goal and the resources involve using ICT.

More on e-Leadership Skills for SMEs: www.eskills-lead.eu